Mission | Bible | Languages

A New Arrogance

The comments section of online articles can be interesting. In the wild-west world that lies at the bottom of the internet, strong opinions, reasoned argument and downright lunacy all vie for space with no apparent rules or organisation. However, in the world of the internet comment, one thing is certain; religion is dead. Anyone who dares to say they have a religious faith is immediately dismissed as a believer in ‘sky pixies’ or something of that ilk. In other words, religious people are too stupid even to debate with.

For many people in the Western world, religion is harmful, nonsensical and the sooner that we have done with it the better. History is on our side, we represent progress and the best values.

The same people who condemn the missionary movement for imposing Western values (though Christianity is not Western) on the rest of the world, are intent on forcing their vision of secular enlightenment across the globe. Except they are failing.

A recent survey of people in 65 countries revealed that the majority of people in the world consider themselves as religious.

What is more, young people tend to be more religious than their parents;

[W]e see that the total number of people who consider themselves to be religious is actually relatively high. Furthermore, with the trend of an increasingly religious youth globally, we can assume that the number of people who consider themselves religious will only continue to increase.”

You can read more details of this report in the Telegraph along with some rather nice graphics.

Now, I wouldn’t want to use this report as a demonstration of the world-wide triumph of Christianity, that would be an extrapolation too far. However, it does demonstrate quite clearly that the narrative which says that religion is dying and that only extremists and idiots are believers is untrue.

The Western world has a myth of progress and its own superiority which doesn’t fit the facts. People around the world find meaning in life outside the secular myth which is so popular in our part of the world.

This post is more than a year old. It is quite possible that any links to other websites, pictures or media content will no longer be valid. Things change on the web and it is impossible for us to keep up to date with everything.

Other Pages

Financial Support

We
do not receive a salary for the work we do with Wycliffe and our income is dependent on the goodwill of friends and churches around the world. If you would like to support us either regularly or by making a one off gift, you can do so by clicking
here.

If you have a PayPal account, you can also make a donation by clicking on this button.

Another way to support us is by buying things from our Amazon wish list, which you can find here. Most of these are work-related, but there is some fun stuff too.